In Liberia, silencing press critics through libel lawsuits

During
Liberia's 14-year civil war, the press was silenced through violence.
Journalists now say they are the victims of a more subtle assault. They say a
corrupt judiciary and a vindictive use of libel suits are a threat to an
otherwise burgeoning free press.

According
to the U.S. State Department's 2010 Human
Rights Report on Liberia, "Defense attorneys
and prosecutors sometimes suggested that defendants pay a gratuity to appease
judges, prosecutors, jurors, and police officers or to secure favorable rulings
from them." The lack of successful prosecution in corruption cases and the
heavy fines imposed in libel suits have created a culture of self-censorship
when reporting on corruption and official misconduct.

The most recent
victim of this phenomenon is FrontPage Africa, Liberia's most widely circulated
newspaper, which was sued last year by former Agriculture Minister Chris Toe after the paper suggested Toe had misappropriated
money. Toe later resigned his post. In February, a unanimous jury ruled
that FrontPage Africawas
guilty, ordering the paper to pay US$1.5 million in damages, a sum that would effectively
shut it down. (For now, the paper continues to publish.)

Rodney Sieh, FrontPage's
editor-in-chief, refused to appeal the decision, claiming that with corrupt
jurors and a biased court he had no hope of a better outcome. "It doesn't help
us to keep wasting money and resources," says Sieh, who said he has spent US$10,000,
and months of court appearances, fighting the charges. "We're daring them to
shut us down." Sieh says someone representing Toe approached him asking for a US$25,000
out-of-court payment to settle the case. "I'm not going to pay a penny," Sieh
said he told the representative.

FrontPage Africa reported that, during the trial,
prosecution lawyers bribed at least two jurors, one of whom signed an affidavit
claiming she received US$2,500 in exchange for a guilty verdict.

"You had a case
where a juror
said they were bribed," Sieh said.
"You had an opposition lawyer talking to one of the jurors outside the court.
The judge allowed the case to go on. In any other country it would have been
thrown out. It's frustrating."

In January, Sieh
was incarcerated for contempt of court in an unrelated case.
FrontPage Africa had published a letter to the editor claiming a Supreme
Court judge was biased during a criminal case. When summoned for questioning,
he was found in contempt and sentenced to 30 days in jail and a fine. He was
released two days later after President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf intervened.

Rival paper theNew Democratis also battling a libel suit from opposition candidate Simeon
Freeman. Freeman alleges that in
2010, a story that ran in the paper portrayed him as incompetent. In the story,
the paper criticized a deal, citing a General Auditing Commission report, in
which Freeman, a satellite television mogul, received a US$900,000 government
contract to import road equipment that was never used.

Unlike Sieh, Kamara
has appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. He was told by his
lawyers that if he paid US$15,000 he'd get a favorable ruling, something he
refused to do. "The case is clear--in libel you have to prove malice or reckless
disregard for the truth," Kamara said.

Kamara believes
that libel is a new form of manipulation that powerful Liberians employ to
control what's reported. "Under the military regime and under Charles
Taylor, there was so much
suffocation of media freedom, they'd either come and close
you down or burn the place down. But
now with international focus on this government, you can see the manipulation
of the media to be seen operating within the confines of the law." In 1996, the
offices of New Democrat were burned down
by Taylor's forces and Kamara fled the country to Ghana.

Since Sirleaf's
democratic election in 2005, which ended a decade of war, not a single
newspaper has won a libel case.

"Should journalists be made to account for
their reckless actions? Yes, they should," Press Union of Liberia president
Peter Quaqua said in a recent speech. "But when public officials who are
entrusted with public authority and resources including the president of the republic,
who is protected by law from suits, decide to sue a journalist, we think it is
nothing more than intimidation."

Last year, the New Broom newspaper shut down after
losing a US$5 million libel suit brought by Sirleaf.

Sieh thinks libel
should be used to curb irresponsible reporting. But he thinks public actors
should also learn to embrace criticism. "If you're in public office, you should
be able to take criticism, no matter what form it comes in," he said. "A lot of
times I've noticed this government is not being tolerant, and that's a bad sign
for any democracy."

Comments

Rodney Sieh is a personal friend. A very responsible and hardworking journalist,shy,humble and a simple guy who cannot kill a fly much more spend his energy on intentionally smearing any public official.I hope this libel suit on him does not fly at all considering all this blackmail and corruption schemes against FrontPage Africa and other papers in Liberia. I wish him all the best and Oh Rodney has made us all proud that he refused to budge or pay endless sums of money to corrupt public officials whose responsibility is to protect citizens at no cost.
Please Rodney keep you foot down $10,000.00 is more than enough blackmail already!God bless
Fatou Jaw Manneh
maafanta.com

What a great article, Aaron and Emily! I remember talking with one or both of you about Liberia's confusing libel laws, and had no idea Front Page Africa's Rodney is currently involved in this struggle.

Is there a way to figure out what the libel laws in Liberia are? A couple of Front Page journalists suggested that the libel laws are not even made clear/accessible to the media or the public in order to purposely keep people out of the legal loop (whatever it is!), and so far my basic searches have proven to be unsuccessful.

Good luck to Rodney and all the other news organizations and journalists facing this attack on press freedom.